Tragédie

A lightning rod jolting the contemporary dance scene in France, Olivier Dubois submits the nude bodies of 18 dancers to the implacable repetition of a mechanism that slowly gnaws away at their docility, pushing them toward an explosive liberation. This powerful, gut-wrenching Tragédie pulls the audience headlong into a collective catharsis.

Experience a blinding, dazzling, deafening humanity. No longer able to distinguish inpidual bodies rising to the surface from masses in movement, the piece presents a quivering, archaic momentum. With Tragédie, Olivier Dubois plunges the audience into a “sensation of the world” beyond mere choreography. Humanity is not the simple fact of being a man or a woman and therein lies the tragedy of our existence, for it is only among bodies and through the earthbound pressures of our steps and our conscious, voluntary commitment that humanity will truly emerge.

Exposed and vulnerable in their nudity, the better to incarnate anatomical variation, nine men and nine women present a truly original state of the human body, a solicitation of the human species devoid of historical, sociological or psychological troubles, one that ultimately gives way to a chorus singing the praises of the glorious body.

Walking or standing upright or face to face, they initially start with a constant to-and-fro – episode after episode of ceaseless movement – before pounding the floor and thus making of basic human steps the fundamental expression of their will.

As with Révolution, Olivier Dubois has created an obsessive and indeed hypnotic piece, movement of ebb and flow, where women and men coalesce only to break apart, the friction of their fusion creating a clash of discord. A rift opens up, revealing in this telluric tumult the precious transcendence of a human community.

“In song and dance, man expresses himself as a member of a higher community. He has forgotten how to walk and speak, and is on the way toward flying up into the air, dancing. He himself now walks about, enchanted.” The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche

“Olivier Dubois has created with Tragédie his very own Sacre du printemps, or his own Boléro.”(Libération, Paris, France)

“The basic energy of a march becomes a whoop of sheer vitality.”(Le Monde, Paris, France)

A bonus for International Dance Day: Prêt à baiser

A duet created at the Musée d’art moderne de Paris the same year as Tragédie, Prêt à baiser is a lengthy kiss choreographed to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, as arranged by the composer François Caffenne, who also worked on Tragédie. Presented for one night only in collaboration with DHC/ART and the Centre PHI, it will be performed by Olivier Dubois and Mohamed Kouadri.

Prêt à baiser (Ready to kiss) will be presented in Montreal on April 29 at 8 p.m. at Centre PHI.Tickets: $26,25 (including taxes and service fees)514.225.0525, 1.855.526.8888

Olivier Dubois

“Amusing, enigmatic and astonishing are the descriptive adjectives that make one want to follow the dynamic path of this singular dancer-choreographer. Take note of his name – Olivier Dubois.” (Télérama Sortir, Paris, France)Born in 1972, Olivier Dubois made his début as a...